Marilynne Robinson

“You must forgive in order to understand.”

— Marilynne Robinson

Ordinary things have always seemed numinous to me

— Marilynne Robinson

There's so much to be grateful for, words are poor things.

— Marilynne Robinson

It is hardship that makes clear who the "fighters" are.

— Marilynne Robinson

Vision sometimes comes in a memory.

— Marilynne Robinson

“I know more than I know and must learn it from myself.”

— Marilynne Robinson

“the worst misfortune isn’t only misfortune”

— Marilynne Robinson

Nothing true can be said about God from a posture of defense.

— Marilynne Robinson

Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever have been otherwise. Loneliness is an absolute discovery.

— Marilynne Robinson

That is to say, I pray for you. And there's an intimacy in it. That's the truth.

— Marilynne Robinson

I like a book to be full of the memory of what it is, a voice in an endless conversation, and yet…

— Marilynne Robinson

“Every writer I know, when asked how to become a writer, responds with one word:Read.”

— Marilynne Robinson

pity and charity may be at root an attempt to propitiate the dark powers that have not touched us yet.

— Marilynne Robinson

I do assume that a character or a place is inexhaustible and will always reward further attention.

— Marilynne Robinson

Salvation was universally considered to be much more becoming in women than in men.

— Marilynne Robinson

The locus of the human mystery is perception of this world. From it proceeds every thought, every art.

— Marilynne Robinson

“Open a book and a voice speaks. A world, more or less alien or welcoming, emerges to enrich a reader’s store of…

— Marilynne Robinson

I don't know exactly what covetous is, but in my experience it is not so much desiring someone else's virtue or happiness…

— Marilynne Robinson

“Let me say first of all that the grace of God is sufficient to any transgression, and that to judge is wrong,…

— Marilynne Robinson

I think hope is the worst thing in the world. I really do. It makes a fool of you while it lasts.…

— Marilynne Robinson

My first novel, 'Housekeeping,' was accepted by the first agent who read it, and bought by the first editor who read it.…

— Marilynne Robinson

“Cranky old Leviticus gave us—gave Christ—not only “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” but also the rather forgotten “Thou shalt love…

— Marilynne Robinson

It seems to me people tend to forget that we are to love our enemies, not to satisfy some standard of righteousness…

— Marilynne Robinson

I'm amazed at what I have taken for granted. How to truly take in our situation I don't know, but I wish…

— Marilynne Robinson

When the Reformation became established, one of the things that was a question between Catholicism and the Reformation traditions was whether there…

— Marilynne Robinson

“Language is music. Written words are musical notation. The music of a piece of fiction establishes the way in which it is…

— Marilynne Robinson

The assumption behind any theology that I've ever been familiar with is that there is a profound beauty in being, simply in…

— Marilynne Robinson

Often, when I want to read something that is satisfying to me as theology, what I actually read is string theory, or…

— Marilynne Robinson

“In the old days I could walk down every single street, past every house, in about an hour. I’d try to remember…

— Marilynne Robinson

The classic theology of my tradition comes from the French Renaissance. [William] Shakespeare was born in 1564, the year [John] Calvin died,…

— Marilynne Robinson

“We had visions in those days, a number of us did. Your young men will have visions and your old men will…

— Marilynne Robinson

“Need can blossom into all the compensations it requires. To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its…

— Marilynne Robinson

“It was a dark and clouded night, but the tracks led to the lake like a broad path. Sylvie walked in front…

— Marilynne Robinson

“The moon looks wonderful in this warm evening light, just as a candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning. Light…

— Marilynne Robinson

“They say an infant can't see when it is as young as your sister was, but she opened her eyes, and she…

— Marilynne Robinson

“I'd never have believed I'd see a wife of mine doting on a child of mine. It still amazes me every time…

— Marilynne Robinson

“When you encounter another person, when you have dealings with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put…

— Marilynne Robinson

“To be mad is to feel with excruciating intensity the sadness and joy of a time which has not arrived or has…

— Marilynne Robinson

“In The Descent of Man, Darwin says: With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive…

— Marilynne Robinson

“Cain killed Abel, and the blood cried out from the ground--a story so sad that even God took notice of it. Maybe…

— Marilynne Robinson